After writing every spare moment the last three years, I decided to take the summer off. The plan was to:

a) Spend more time with my lovelies: my husband, the sanctuary dogs and the rescue horses.

b) Rest the writing muscles and come back refreshed and bursting with ideas.

It worked. I’m excited to get cracking on my current WIP (that’s work-in-progress for my non-writer friends) and I’m straining at the bit to begin another YA (young adult) novel for NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) in November.

That said, it doesn’t mean I didn’t have a creative outlet the past three months. Besides writing and poetry, I also love photography. It’s something I do for my own personal pleasure; unlike writing, I particularly enjoy the lack of competition and perfectionism, and the desert provides endless material.

Not something I'd want stuck in my hair!

I’m not sad to see the summer end; it’s been the hottest one yet. And even though monsoon clouds kept rolling in …

Summer has the bluest eyes ...

… and brightened up the days in a ROY-G-BIV sort of way …

Somewhere ...

... over the rainbow ...

… the monsoon was miserly with its rain, albeit quite generous with its sunsets:

Still, one of my favorite times of the day is when the moon appears …

The moon is an early riser.

… and night falls, which is the perfect time to snuggle under the covers with a good novel and read someone else’s one thousand words.